The storage device according to the invention can be used in numerous industrial fields, whenever an intermediate storage is required in a relatively reduced volume within an automated installation.
A preferred application of the invention relates to the storage of small containers or jugs containing chemical products such as radioactive products, prior to the analysis thereof, within a tight cell in which analysis is to take place. More specifically, the preferred application relates to an automated installation like that described in FR-A-2 675 582, in which liquid samples are sampled in an automated manner at different points of a production or processing chain, and introduced into containers and automatically transferred to analysis boxes or cases by pneumatic transfer circuits.
In such an installation, the containers containing the samples to be analyzed drop directly into the bottom of the analysis boxes, which leads to a certain number of problems which will now be described.
A first problem relates to the identification of the containers, which takes place by reading a code carried by each container. In view of the fact that all the containers are loosely arranged in the bottom of the analysis box, the operator has to seek, with the aid of grippers, the particular container of interest to him. This fastidious operation is further complicated by optical deformations of the shielding window through which the operator reads the codes carried by the containers.
Another problem results from the fact that during their transportation and when they pass into the analysis box, the containers are located in a receptacle carrying the aforementioned identification code. In order to carry out the analysis, the operator must successively remove the container from the receptacle and then open the container, which constitutes an error source. In order to avoid such errors, the operator usually places the containers in a rack having holes after extracting the containers from their receptacles and notes the codes of the samples corresponding to said holes on paper stuck to the exterior of the box. However, this makes the procedure more difficult, particularly when there is a team change.
Another problem is due to the outflow of analytical liquids, which normally takes place through the bottom of the box to a syphon system. As soon as the containers drop in the analysis box, they are externally contaminated by these analytical liquids. At the time of the opening of the containers, external contamination can bring about a pollution of the interior of the container, which falsifies the analysis result.
In an installation like that described in FR-A-2 675 582, certain of the containers entering a given analysis box have to be redispatched to other analysis boxes without being opened. The external contamination of the containers due to their contact with the analytical liquids flowing in the bottom of the analysis box then pollutes the pneumatic transfer systems, which become of an irradiative nature with respect to personnel. To obviate this disadvantage, it is consequently necessary, within the analysis box, to carry out a transfer of the samples contained in the externally contaminated containers into uncontaminated containers, For example, for this purpose use is made of a transfer device, as described in FR-A-2 679 035. However, although the use of such a transfer device makes it possible to protect personnel from irradiation, it leads to the creation of supplementary solid waste in the form of the externally irradiated containers.
In numerous industrial sectors, the problem of the provisional storage of generally cylindrical objects is solved by having recourse to storage devices incorporating a vertically axed, rotary rack having on its periphery one or more rows of cylindrical cavities or recesses, whose axes are also vertical. The charging or loading and the discharging or unloading of the objects takes place vertically, generally from the top of the cavities. In certain cases, the objects can be discharged via the bottom of the cavities.
This generally satisfactory configuration suffers from the disadvantage of imposing on the external diameter of the rack dimensions which can be excessive when the number of cavities is increased. This problem becomes particularly delicate when it is intended to use such a storage device within an analysis box having to contain a certain number of other devices in a restricted volume.
The invention specifically relates to a storage device making it possible to store a relatively large number of substantially cylindrical objects in a limited diameter, so as to permit use in an analysis box of an installation like that described in FR-A-2 675 582, while solving the aforementioned problems caused by the dropping of the containers into the bottom of said box.